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Friday, March 12, 2010

TMF #1 Completed, Perigee Now 35.3 Mm

The first Trim Motor Firing (TMF #1) was successfully completed Thursday evening. This apogee burn raised our perigee to 35,300 km, an orbital period of 23.6 hr. This means we are drifting 6 degrees to the east in every orbit. Two more thruster burns will be done, TMF #2 is a perigee burn to raise the apogee to its final value and TMF #3 is an apogee burn to raise the perigee to its final value. Our eastward drift will also be stopped and we will orbit the Earth once per day at the longitude of New Mexico.